Aftermath
by D-Annelise
Summary: Life after Apocalypse was supposed to be easy. What it brings are trials, panic, and ugly pasts


**Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel or the X-Men. Get it. Got it? Good.**

**Prelude**

_What will we do? What will we say?  
When it's the end of this game that we play?  
Will we crumble into the dust, my friend?  
Or will we start this game over again?  
**Dangerous Game**_**, Three Doors Down****  
**

_Adler, Irene: Destiny. Power: precognition._

_Bishop, Lucas: Bishop. Power: absorption and amplification of energy._

_Cassidy, Sean: Banshee. Power: flight and sonic scream._

_Creed, Victor: Sabretooth. Power: healing, enhanced senses, and feline looks._

_Darkholme, Raven: Mystique. Power: shape shifting._

_Frost, Emma: Frost. Power: telepathy and diamond skin._

_Howlett, James "Logan": Wolverine. Power: healing, enhanced sense, and adamantium claws._

_McCoy, Henry: Beast. Power: a protective coat of blue fur and enhanced strength and senses_

_Munroe, Ororo: Storm. Power: manipulation over weather and minimal control over water currents._

_Niles, Tessa: Sage. Power: total memory recall, cyberpathy, and minimal telepathy._

_Reyes, Cecelia: Force. Power: the creation of "bio"-force fields._

_Thurman, Nina: Domino. Power: random acts of telekinesis that create "luck"._

_Wheadon, Evangeline: Vange. Power: shape shifts into a dragon at the smell of blood._

_Winters, Nathan: Cable. Power: telepathy, telekinesis, and psychokinesis. _

_Wyngrade, Jason: Mastermind. Power: creation of illusions within people's minds._

_Yoshida, Shiro: Sunfire. Power: flight, absorption of solar energy and electromagnetic radiation, and plasma bolts._

The list read like a list of causalities: detached and emotionless. Name, codename, powers. Too little identification, or maybe too much. There was more within the Cerebro files, click on a name and he could get DNA, video surveillance, height, weight, shoe size…

It all meant absolutely _nothing_ to S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. A bunch of gibberish that the federal government for some absolutely bizarre reason demanded. Really, it wasn't going to do anybody much good to have a list of mutants and a list of mutant powers.

What they needed, really, was a way to counteract mutants should they get out of hand. Like a police force. A _mutant_ police force, since humans would be completely useless against dangerous mutants. After all, mutants such as Magneto apparently had no problems what so ever with using an extremely dangerous power against people with no way to defend themselves.

That idea had been shot down by the United States government in record time. Which made Fury increasingly glad that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't technically exist within the confines of any government. In fact, he lived for such technicalities.

Sighing frustrated, Fury attempted to hack even more files from Cerebro, slowly realizing that each group was increasingly more encrypted. Maybe Xavier was learning from his earlier mistakes. Fury could only hope, since he really had no desire to start a war between mutants and humans.

_Alvers, Lance: Avalanche. Power: geokinesis._

_Daniels, Evan: Spyke. Power: creation of bone spikes._

_Dukes, Fred: Blob. Power: altercation of his density and skin that sticks to whatever it touches._

_Grey, Jean: codename pending. Power: telepathy and telekinesis._

_Maximoff-Lensherr, Pietro: Quicksilver. Power: super speed and natural resistance to fast speeds._

_Maximoff-Lensherr, Wanda: Scarlet Witch. Power: altercation of probability and control of chaos magics._

_Pryde, Katherine: Shadowcat. Power: corporal intangibility._

_Raven, Anna Marie: Rogue. Power: absorption of life forces, psyches, and mutant powers._

_Summers, Scott: Cyclops. Power: concussive optic blasts from absorbed solar energy._

_Tolensky, Todd: Toad. Power: strong leg muscles, long tongue, and the secretion of slime and acid._

_Wagner, Kurt: Nightcrawler. Power: teleportation, "demon" appearance, blue fur, and the ability to cling to walls._

Fury wondered if the government had any idea of absolutely meaningless it was to find _every_ mutant Xavier kept on Cerebro. The last group were the eleven mutants that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been tracking since Trask had set the stupid Sentinels free.

In fact, they were the only ones that anyone knew for sure were mutants. Which wasn't to say that Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Sabretooth, Storm, Wolverine, and Beast hadn't shown up on the mutant radar. They just hadn't ever had mutations confirmed by the stupid scanning devices.

He was startled out of his reverie by a knock on his door and Carol Danvers poked her head in. She looked absolutely exhausted, and Fury felt a tad guilty for making her stay late about all this.

"President McKenna called to say that he wants the mutants involved with the Apocalypse thing arrested and put on trial ASAP," the blonde informed him, leaning against the door jamb and looking through the freshly printed files. "Jen says she'll do defense pro bono, and I'm sure the government is getting Stryker for prosecution."

Fury almost choked on the air, hissing in anger. "Stryker? As in Purity website Stryker? As in I'm-Going-To-Annihilate-Mutants Stryker?" he really didn't need an answer though. After all, who else was there to prosecute not-so-innocent, but not guilty of crimes accused mutants. "Walters is going to have to be damn good to pull that off."

"She says that if she gets the right character witnesses, she can prove that they were possessed and would _never_ want to destroy all mutant kind, if not human," Carol answered matter-of-factly, glancing down at the files she held. "It's the arrests I'm worried about, how do we hold people with these kinds of powers."

"Call Trask," he sounded defeated, pinching the bridge of his nose, "see if he has any ideas. Let him know that we'll lighten his sentence if he can find a way of creating cells without killing the mutants. And if they're hurt in any way by the containment, please inform him that I will personally execute him."

She nodded curtly, "Of course, sir, I'll inform him and then get Tony right on that." With that, she was gone, her combat boots echoing down the tiled hallway floor as she left.

As soon as he was sure she was gone, Fury allowed his head hit the desk sharply, scattering papers. The sheer stupidity of some of the men in power _never_ ceased to astound him. Why on earth would _anyone_ want to arrest people who brought about the apocalypse? It was suicide to go up against the world's most powerful mutants.

And he absolutely could not believe he was going to agree to dispatch agents to do it, either. Maybe if he petitioned for a speedy trial, informed them that they would win… all those false promises he picked up from hanging around with politicians over the years. That at least settled one thing, he was going to personally conduct those arrests… and quit hacking those stupid Cerebro files that were far beyond boring him.


End file.
